Some people tend to turn away from work when responsibility enters the room where something needs to happen. They want to talk about work, about what’s being done and what’s not being done, and they want to layer in perfunctory lines about the challenges likely to be hit if changes are/aren’t made so they are not excluded from the conversation. But they don’t want to do the actual work when hard enters the equation alongside responsibility.

That is for someone else. For something else. For some other time. You’ve experienced this scenario before (we know you have), and maybe even ducked out yourself when the starting line came into view. Deflection tactics in any number of directions are a large reason why for every started process improvement project there are fifteen failed versions of the same project in the archives.

If you really want processes to improve you need to eliminate the roadblocks put in the way. Roadblocks like believing more bureacracy is going to get you to the promised land…this time. Or spinning responsibility like an Inception totem: is it real or is it a dream? Or thinking a list of ideas and recommendations will take on fantasia qualities and render complete by Mickey Magic. 

And, yes, the roadblock of allowing deflections to take root before you even enter the room where the work needs to happen. Once non-action is an acceptable response at an individual level, there is little to stop it from becoming the collective response within an organization’s culture.